A senior spokesperson for Russia’s Council of Muftis has urged Moscow authorities to build more mosques in the city, saying this would prevent the overcrowding of city streets on major holidays.

“Believers deserve more mosques in Moscow. We are suggesting
ten mosques for the whole of Moscow, one for each administrative
district. It would be easier, and no one would have to stop the
traffic if the mosques were evenly distributed throughout the
city,” Gulnur Gaziyeva was quoted as saying by RSN radio on
Monday.

The suggestion was made on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the
Muslim holiday of breaking the fast, which is known as Uraza
Bairam in Russia. As in previous years the celebrations attract
thousands of people to the two mosques in central Moscow,
prompting the authorities to close several major streets to
traffic, and putting an additional load on public transport.

Muslim officials raise the issue of new mosques several times
every year as the economic boom has drawn thousands of migrant
workers from predominantly Muslim Central Asian states to the
Russian capital.

However, in November last year Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin
rejected the idea in a press interview saying
that the majority of mosque-goers were not permanent residents of
the city, but migrants who should go home once their working
contracts expire.

The Mayor said the existing three mosques could very well serve
the needs of the permanent residents of Moscow who follow the
Muslim faith.

In 2012 the Echo of Moscow radio quoted Sobyanin as saying that
no new mosques will be built in the city under his rule.

According to official statistics from Moscow City Hall the number
of labor migrants in the city is close to 2 million but there is
no breakdown by religion.